LAS Summer Student Research

In March 2016, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences announced the establishment of the Summer Undergraduate Research and Artistry Fellowship Program.  The purpose of the program is to provide outstanding students with the means to conduct summer research and creative activity within their chosen fields of study.  The program will facilitate opportunities for LAS juniors and seniors who are returning in the fall semester, to conduct serious, in-depth research and creative productivity.  Under the guidance of a dedicated faculty mentor, fellowship recipients will be able to lay the foundation for an exceptional senior thesis or capstone project.  

A selection committee comprised of Associate Professor of Chemistry Dr. Wayne Bosma, Professor of International Studies Dr. Chuck Bukowski and Assistant Professor of English Dr. Devin Murphy, along with LAS Associate Dean of Engaged Learning, Dr. Derek Montgomery, reviewed a number of proposals.  Thanks to the hard work of the university’s Institutional Advancement division, the committee is able to provide funding for three students to receive these inaugural summer fellowships.  The members of the selection committee were extremely impressed with the quality of the proposals that were submitted, noting that all would have been worthy of funding, making the decision to select three recipients most difficult.

Kaydra Bui ’17, a student in the LAS Interdisciplinary Major Program with a focus on rhetorical studies, received the award for the Humanities division of the college.  Kaydra will explore hashtag usage in contemporary culture.  In addition to investigating how hashtags are changing communication in the digital age, she will examine how hashtag usage has advanced beyond Twitter to other social media, digital text, print text and spoken communication.  According to Kaydra’s faculty mentor, Associate Professor of English Dr. Seth Katz, “Kaydra will be able to develop an account of an emerging English usage as it is still happening. She will thus be able to contribute new information—and potentially new theoretical insights—to the persistent questions of why and how language changes.”

The winner of the summer fellowship for the Natural and Computational Sciences division of the college is Andie Miller ’17.  Andie is an Environmental Science major with a concentration in Biology, who will be developing a preliminary study to understand the effect of native and commercial arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on growth and production in Andropogon gerardii (Big Bluestem). Her goal is to discover how plant productivity can be improved and native systems restored with less pollution and land degradation.  Summer mentor and Professor of Biology Dr. Sherri Morris commented about Andie, “Ms. Miller has developed an obvious passion for land management strategies and their impacts on soil communities. She appreciates the complexities of these disturbed systems and the degree to which human intervention can impact sustainable use.”

The third fellowship recipient, Psychology major Emily Walsh ’17, received the award for the Social Sciences division of the college.  Emily’s summer work will lay the foundation for her senior Psychology Department honors thesis.  She will be investigating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in adolescent rats to determine whether environmental enrichment (EE) is a viable intervention for adolescent rats exhibiting the PTSD phenotype. To date, effects of EE on stress responses have been exclusively measured in adults.  Emily will be working with Associate Professor of Psychology Dr. Tim Koeltzow on the project, who states, “Emily’s career objectives are to attend a doctoral program in either medicine (with an emphasis on neurology) or neuroscience. The opportunity to engage in an immersive summer research experience will provide Emily with essential insights into her talent, disposition and passion such that she can achieve clarity on which path is best for her.”  Emily plans to present her research results at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in Fall 2016 and at the Midwest Psychological Association conference in Spring 2017.

When asked what receiving this summer fellowship means, Walsh said, “I am thrilled and deeply appreciative that a selection committee from outside of my own department felt that the work I will be doing this summer is worthwhile. All of the recipients are working on completely different projects, and it is exciting to be part of a group with such diverse interests.”  For Miller, receiving the summer fellowship is a path to her future goal of being, “embedded in the agriculture industry, researching ways in which we can maintain crop yields with less atmospheric and terrestrial pollutions.  We [humans] can and will continue to inflict extensive damage to the Earth, yet it will survive. Mankind, on the contrary, is the body at risk of extinction, and it is through sustainable practice that we will ensure a viable future for our posterity.”

Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dr. Christopher Jones, who developed a similar program at another institution, is excited about the launch of the program.  “I am truly delighted that we are able to provide this type of intellectual experience to our very best LAS students.  I am also very grateful the program is entirely supported by financial gifts from generous donors,” said Jones.

Each student will receive a $4,500 summer fellowship.   If you are interested in supporting a student’s summer research or creative experience, please contact LAS Director of Development, Carla Payne.  Additional questions about the program may be directed to LAS Associate Dean of Engaged Learning, Dr. Derek Montgomery.